You’re responsible for killings in Shasha market, Senate President Lawan attacks South West governors

 

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has blamed the recent ethnic crisis in Shasha market in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Governors across the Southwest region of the country.

Insight Magazine had reported that crisis had on February 18 erupted in Shaha following an argument that ensued between a pregnant Yoruba woman and a Hausa businessman.

Following the development, many lives were lost while many houses got burnt, which rendered thousands of Hausa residents homeless.

Speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa Service, Lawan attributed the violence to the latest call for the eviction of Fulani herders out of Southwestern states.

“Leadership failures in the region cause what happened in Oyo State and other things that kept happening in the Southwestern states,” he said.

“Some utterances by some governors also went a long way in inciting the citizens to take up arms against other ethnic groups settling in their states.

“The governors’ utterances emboldened the criminals to unleash violence against the northerners.”

Prominent Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho, recently asked herdsmen in Igangan in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo state to leave within seven days following reports of the killing of some residents.

Days after, violence erupted in the area during which the houses and property of the Seriki Fulani, Alhaji Saliu Abdulkadir, were burnt.

Abdulkadir had told SaharaReporters that he, his wives and children were sent out of the settlement, adding that 11 vehicles and houses were burnt in the process.

The Seriki had after that fled the community with his family, as aggrieved youths set fire on the settlement.

In the same vein, Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, last month issued a seven-day quit notice to Fulani herdsmen operating illegally in the state’s forest reserves.

Apart from ejecting the herdsmen, the governor also banned underage grazing, night grazing, and cattle movement within the cities and on highways.

The issue generated an uproar, and after a meeting with various stakeholders, Akeredolu asked herdsmen to register with the government to operate unhindered in the forest reserves.